A slight misnomer in the title – as to be honest playtime will be the next post of this saga.
I am going to cover our study/guest room plus the family bathroom today.
Firstly an update on what’s been happening – we had over the main suppliers (and their families) for a barbecue this past week. It is nice to actually relax and socialise with people that you spend so much time working with. The reason for the year (plus) delay was that I was waiting for my smoker to arrive (plus then some time to get comfortable using it) before inviting them. Maybe not so interesting to you – but the meat menu was smoked ribs and homemade sausages plus normal (bbq) grilled sausages, burgers and chicken wings – plus the standard paraphernalia of complementary cuisine and drinks.
I am not sure if I mentioned this in the last blog – but our intercom system has stopped working. I called the alarm company that installed it and they want an annual support fee for the cameras, intercom and alarm – the price was “Al Hapanim” (“al hapanim” approximately is used for “way over the top”) – so I called the electrician that installed our network and sound system. He will come for free and check the system out – at that point we will get a price and make a decision.

On to the rooms – We will be starting with the study. This room is also used as our main guest bedroom. The main negative from this room is that it is sandwiched between the two boys rooms (one next door and the other opposite).

The first two photos show the study as it was when we bought the house. Like all the rooms – this one changed size and shape but we also completely moved the position of the cupboards as can be seen in later photos.
The next photo was the destruction of the study.
Like the phoenix – out of destruction comes rebirth (although a lot slower in this case). The photo of the walls being built is from the stairs and the study is on the right hand side of the picture. The other photo speaks for itself.
After the windows were installed I took photos of all of them. This photo below shows the light fitting as well – and so I have included it as we really struggled to find these lights. We were looking for a really common UK light fixture that uses multiple spots (3 or 4) and swivels easily to point wherever you want them. This light was the nearest that we could find. We used them in all the upstairs rooms (except the playroom)
The following two photos are professional and therefore are using “props” that we do not have or use in the house….

On to the bathroom – possibly the most used room in the house……
As normal, I am starting with the beginning. This was the area as it first was – a bedroom. This is the area that you can most easily see how much we changed the interior layout of the house. Everyone who went into the old building could not understand the waste of space that we turned into a bathroom and tv/playroom. You can see part of that transformation below.
Again, we started with the destruction and moved on to the building – not a surprise really.
Below is the first interesting feature. We had to drop the ceiling so that we could put the air conditioning manifold in this area. Every air conditioning pipe for every unit in the house is connected here – that is 9 units in the house plus the compressor unit of the roof.
The bath was almost the first thing installed – this is shown after protection in the photo below.
The photo below shows the area which will become our utility room – it is small, but has plenty of storage. The only thing missing is a sink – but it is next to the bathroom so there isn’t far to go.
After installing the bath we started the tiling. This can be seen in the two photos below.
Below is our sink and vanity unit.
The following 3 photos are professional and so once again have props that are not ours. Our bathroom in real life does not look like it is in an expensive restaurant or hotel – honest (especially after the kids’ rushed morning ablutions….)

That’s all for today.

This is possibly the penultimate post. The next post will include the 2 indoor play areas. Depending on the number of photos I may include photos of the roof. I may include it in another post.
We have not covered in this blog the rental unit that we have downstairs.

Who else could I be speaking about – except for Hermetix. They promised installation and failed and failed again. I am starting with the area where this affected me the most – the basement.

Tenants – The tenants were supposed to be moving in today. They were told a couple of months ago that it would be very tight. A week ago we told them it would be an extra couple of days. I do not currently know how long until they move in as I am waiting for two main areas as will be explained below. The tenants’ main issue was that they had to leave their current property and therefore they needed to store everything. They are using the apartment for that without issues and they are currently staying with family. It says something about how difficult it is to get a good apartment that they are willing to “live” with the delayed real start date.

Basement Front door – We had the kablan (contractor) arrange for new facias and lock to be installed onto the existing front door. This has been done (white on the inside and I guess grey on the outside – the guess is because I saw it at night without any lights). It did look good though.

Basement Tiling – The kitchen splashback was completed and all grouting has now been done.

Basement Electricity – All lights have been installed, all sockets and switches have been completed. The only electrics that need doing is “covering” of the heater cables in the bathroom as I do not want these and the labeling of each circuit fuse switch in the electricity box for clarity. The electrician specifically came to the house on Friday (weekend here) to complete this part of the installation.

Basement Windows – The basement windows and patio door have now been completed.

Air conditioning – The 4 air conditioning units and base unit have been installed.

Cleaning – The kablan did basic cleaning of the basement. It wasn’t amazing but it was acceptable.

Protective bars – We are now onto the areas left to do. The protective bars around the basement windows/patio door needs to be returned/replaced. This hasn’t been done yet. It is cheaper to add the bars than to install an alarm.

Vanity Unit – Everybody has been nagging for the vanity unit to be installed in the bathroom for the last 2 weeks. We have been told today that it will be installed on Wednesday.

Plumbing – The hot water (pumps/hot water tank and solar heat collectors) are being installed tomorrow. The final plumbing connections in the kitchen haven’t been completed either. I may offer to do them myself tomorrow to speed things up!

Gas Points (inside and out) – These are being installed on Thursday by Amisragas. They are supposed to be giving ballonim (gas canisters) as well – just not sure if that is at the same time or on the following Sunday (normal delivery day).

Interior doors – These were supposed to be installed on Sunday but Hermetix did it again….they failed to deliver what they had promised. The kablan was waiting for the doors so that he could do the last finishing touches, but the Hermetix installer was sick yesterday and today so the doors haven’t gone in. I am not sure that the installer is sick – I have a feeling that the doors just aren’t ready. I have been told that the company feels very bad and that this is the first time that anyone has heard them apologise for anything (although they didn’t bother calling us to apologise – nor offer any compensation however small). We still do not know when we are getting the doors as the company wishes to use the “best” installer that they have. It doesn’t make us feel any better. We feel really guilty that the tenants are being messed around so much.

That’s enough for the basement, on to the rest of the house, starting outside and moving in and up.

Garden – The water feature, stepping stones and watering system have been installed. Most of the fence netting has been installed except for where the neighbour was complaining. We are going to wait until we have cameras looking at that part of the garden in case what we do doesn’t gain her approval.

Front door – Hermetix did actually manage to get one thing installed on time – the front door. It is due to the front door and windows being installed that so much has been done in the last week.

Windows – All windows and doors have been installed now. Andersen are hoping to complete the “finishing” tomorrow with the single exception of the painting of the wooden doors. They have a specific worker who specialises in this part of the project. Andersen are planning on walking through the whole project with me tomorrow afternoon. The painting will be organised in the next couple of days.

Concrete – The concrete was installed both in the garage and for the play area. The garage looks great, but the play area has white streaks on it – I am not sure if this is related to dirt or some other issue.

Electrics – The electrician continued with finishing off our electrics. He has not yet done the lights.

Alarm – The alarm is being partially installed tomorrow.

Smoke Alarms – after a confused discussion with the electrician we found out that we had approved for our smoke alarms to be wired into the alarm system (rather than separate battery operated units). This will also be done as part of the alarm installation.

Network – We have a quote for the installation of the hard and wifi network. We also need to arrange for an internet provider to give us connection at the house.

Gas Points – This is the same as the basement. Our points will be installed on Thursday, the only difference is that we do not yet have an oven as they need a point to install it. Therefore we will not be given our ballonim and will have to call the gas company back the following week (more money!)

Hot water – as in the basement, our hot water is being installed tomorrow. Our underfloor heating air pump will be installed at the same time.

Counter Tops – Our kitchen counter tops and sinks were installed.

Under sink waste disposal – We ordered an “insinkerator” from a US exporter that specialises in 240V appliances. It arrived last week and was collected yesterday after VAT was charged on the item plus shipping costs.

Fish tank – moving sideways (or forwards depending on perspective) we get to the fish tank. The wooden base has been installed and the glass tank is being made at the moment. When installed the carpenter can then create the unit around it.

Glass – The glass railing, mirrors and shower/bath doors were installed. The railing still needs a wooden top that the carpenter is not yet aware of!

Cleaning – this is booked for the 17th and 18th March. After this there will be very little “dirty” work to do. Mainly carpentry and “finishing” off.

Wardrobes – The wardrobes were booked for the 18th which is not possible due to the cleaning. The company has promised to do their best to get the wardrobes in on the 19th. It has not yet been confirmed though.

Study Paint – the kablan is including Magnetic paint for the area behind the desk in the study so that we can use it to hold company magnets and “post-it” notes.

Carpentry – we found out that the carpenter was working on the units for our garage. These are probably the lowest on our “order of importance”. We created a new list for him that included cupboards and public areas before the bits that are just for our personal storage!

Sofa bed – this has been ordered. Normally it takes 30 days plus – but as we need it for use on the 28th the company is trying to push it through quickly. I think they are trying to impress our designer as she hasn’t used them for about 6 months!

Deliveries – I wanted to arrange all deliveries for Tuesday 24th – but that would be too tight for us moving in. Instead I decided to do everything on the 19th but being in Israel this didn’t work. We now have our fridge, freezer and oven being delivered on the Wednesday (have arranged that kitchen cleaning is done first). Natanel’s bed is being installed on the 19th as is ideal (closets as well hopefully). The other beds are coming in on the twentieth. We also ordered today a new dishwasher and TV for the Wii – we do not yet know what day this will be delivered. The fun was arranging the delivery of the fridge freezer. We are getting a more European style and it comes in two units (separate fridge and freezer). The delivery company have it documented in their warehouse as two fridges rather than a fridge and freezer. The shop has promised me that the delivery company has it wrong and if there is an issue to call him. For those who need to buy large electrical items in Israel for the first time – be aware that once the item turns up you cannot even unpack it. You need to call a installation service – paid for by the manufacturer/shop – who install it for you. This confirms your warranty. If you unpack a fridge and plug it in yourself you have no warranty at all – even if it doesn’t work out of the box.

Moving – We have arranged for a removal company to move us on either the 24th or 26th March. We want the 26th but it is easier for them on either the 24th or 25th. They are only moving the large items as we will be moving the rest ourselves as we have overlapped the move and our rental by a whole month. We will not be moving our everyday kitchen until after pesach (We are moving into a brand new/clean pesachdik kitchen – and house – a really lucky side benefit of the timing).

Pesach presents – Israeli companies often give “bonus” presents for Rosh Hashana and Pesach. I was offered a set of choices and I decided to be nice to the boys (actually – it may be nicer to Joelle!) and I selected the fancy Karaoke machine which connects to the TV and will provide minutes of embarrassing fun.

That’s all for the week (except that which I forgot or am not aware of due to the protection of both designer and Kablan),

For both of us we are in the “busiest” time of work. For Joelle the kids are all sick now and yes it is urgent to see them 20 minutes after the end of the clinic as he/she has been ill for at least three days when we didn’t bother to bring them….. For me it is the end of the year and everyone is busy making sure that their departments have every bit of information required for their year-end reporting. If there are system issues then I wouldn’t have time to think. Luckily everything has gone smoothly – and yesterday was the quietest day I have had in the whole year. Everyone was too busy to bother me!

Even though we are both busy at work – the house is coming along in leaps and bounds. I hardly know where to start. Let’s start with the thing nearest my heart – food 🙂

The smoker – I just could not get in touch with Lang, the more that I looked the more that I saw they had a name for very poor customer service and also for poor looking (but effective) welds on the less important areas of the smoker. So I decided to look further afield and at the moment I am in touch with a company called “Pits by JJ” and am hoping that I can work something out with them. Talking of smokers – I smoked ribs for the first time yesterday and it was one of the nicest and messiest meals that I have ever started a fast on! I even have left overs for supper tonight!

The garden – moving slowly inward. This is the area that has made the most movement over the last two weeks. All the outside tiling and stone areas have been prepared. This includes whitewashing plus the creation of concrete bases etc The two flower beds for the climbing plants in the social area have been built – and look great. We have decided on the stone that we wish to use for the natural stone we are using for the stairs and the area near to the entrance of the house. We have designed how we are doing the stairs. We have also started to speak about lighting of the garden stairs and also about fences and handrails for safety. This week we also took home 10 tangerines (many more left on tree) and have to pick the pomelos as well to promote extra growth. It can be a shabbat treat.

Outside lighting – I have samples of the two possible lights (they are identical but different sizes) and we need to look at them and confirm if they work for us. They are technically not waterproof – but the only way they will get wet by the electrics is through someone spraying them with water from underneath. The kablan is happy with them from a water perspective as well.

Wood – I have started to chop up the wood in a way that will be more useful to us. It is hard work as it hasn’t really dried out enough yet. I am also starting to move it into a place that is out of the way.

Railings / Fencing – Two different suppliers came to the house yesterday to show off the options that they have as well as measure to quote for the work we need. Outside we need some kind of front fence which will also be used as a separation of two different garden areas. This really is an issue as we do not like any of the options that we have been shown in either steel or aluminium. In Israel, wood is really not an ideal but we may need to use it as that is all we really like. If we do go for wood I am not looking forward to the maintenance. We also have railings on the stairs and by any drops. We will need a grill to cover an “English Window” as well as one patio window as well.

Garage – We do not wish to have a garage door and we do not have planning permission for it, so we have ordered an automatic parking barrier which will stop others using our garage. It is a small thing that will drop on the to the floor whenever we wish to park – and will stay up when the garage is empty.

Outside doors – the space for the outside French door has been finished. We started looking at doors (more about this later) and we are really struggling with the main front door. We just do not like the outside doors that are available. All the aluminium ones are as ugly as hell – and the wooden ones just will not last due to the heat.

Inside doors – We had a meeting with Hermetix at the beginning of the week where we confirmed everything that we ordered. We confirmed the door designs, chose the colours and locking mechanisms. We also selected a door handle but do not like the handles they have on option – we are going to look for a different option from the shops. All the Hermetix doors will be measured next week.

Inside railings – the guys that are doing the quote for the outside fences/railings will also be giving us a quote for the stair railings. These are going to be the simplest possible. We do not want anything that looks too fancy.

Wardrobes – We ordered the boys and our wardrobes last week. When I got home I realised that I am supposed to pay an additional payment for delivery/installation of over 10% of the build cost. Considering we are buying fitted cupboards I was not happy with this and I complained. I am awaiting a response through Tamar about this.

Interior design – talking of Tamar, she is keeping everything moving, arranging meetings and specialists to come, nagging us to make decisions and look at different options. We still do not know where she finds enough hours in the day to do everything.

Natanel’s bed – we went to one store in Talpiot but their beds were too low and looked so babyish. We wish to put a desk underneath and so it will need to have a reasonable height.

Carpentry – quotes have gone out to a couple of carpenters. We have a partial quote back from one, but we are still waiting on this – one of the most important (read expensive) areas of the project.

Kitchen – we now have a quote for a kitchen in the basement. We are waiting on another two so we have not seen it yet. We want this (and the other carpentry) to be in before the windows.

Bathroom glass – our glass person came yesterday and we realised that the glass door in our en-suite will actually hit the shower head if it is opened inwards. As we have rain showers we are not worried about water spraying too high and so we have dropped the height of the glass slightly. We had a big discussion about the shower in the kids bathroom and I said that we are staying with a double door for the boys. We do not think there is enough space if we have a single door as it is being used on a bath and not a shower.

Bathroom – There is an access panel for the air conditioning unit that was included in our bathroom that I never even knew was needed. It looks really cool and has been nicely done.

Kablan – The kablan has continued with all the tasks. Finishing off the window spaces, testing grout with our tiles (we still have to make one choice), preparing the walls for painting, electricity, completion of interior tiling and the tiling of the front upper mirpeset (balcony) amongst other things that I may not have even noticed.

Fireplace – The base that we will be using for building our fire on has been completed – I need to go and collect that early next week.

Shopping – Some extra meaty crockery has just come in that I need to collect which will allow us to take our every day numbers up to 10 place sittings. We have ordered and received some bedding, rugs, cushion, pillowcases and a clock from the Man City football team website shop to decorate Natanel’s room. The actual items were reasonably priced, but the delivery and import duties/tax doubled the price.

With the planning permission sorted we have started moving a lot faster – we will start with the windows.

Windows – The playroom and the lounge windows have now been enlarged. We now have a 3.2m wide hole in our lounge overlooking a large tree (which is blocking our view of the wadi and desert). We will be talking to the Iriya to see if we can reduce the size of this tree to give us a nicer view. The Kablan while opening up the big window found a support which wasn’t found previously and so he spoke to the engineer….

Structural engineer – The structural engineer is insisting on a support beam plus special preparations (some sort of metal tiles and drivers into the wall) for the lounge window. We were expecting this – but it hadn’t been priced just in case it wasn’t needed – oh well. He has also requested additional support for the french doors in our bedroom. This wasn’t expected or planned at all as there was already a door there (but a lot smaller – and put in without permission).

Underfloor heating and hot water – The underfloor heating has now been completed in the dining area, kitchen, hall and our bedroom. It has not been done in the lounge as the window and support have to be completed first. We have requested that this heating will not be near the piano (it damages the wood and destroys the instrument) and also not immediately next to the fish tank as it may make the fish tank temperature more complex to control.
We asked for the interior pipes for the hot water heat collectors to be copper rather than the steel that is normally used in Jerusalem. The installer has said that this is the same price but he will not give us a warranty on it. When we asked why – we were told that it was due to the fact that water freezes in Jerusalem and copper pipes burst. We told the Kablan that copper is used as standard in England where the temperature regularly drops to below freezing in the winter. It never gets down to freezing in Ma’ale Aldumim and anyway the installer can put antifreeze into the pipes as we have requested a closed system. They will get back to us! By the way, the reason that we want copper is because it is more efficient and the water gets hotter quicker.

Plumbing – The pipework in our bathroom for the sink had sunken whilst the concrete was setting. I walked in during the week to see the poor plumber drilling out the pipes (through and around the underwater heating pipes) in order to re-set them. It was noticed when they were about to get to the tiling.

Tiling – the tiler has now almost completed our bedroom, bathroom, cupboard area, downstairs entrance, dining room and kitchen. He has also carried on with the stairs. Nothing has been completed to the edges as the walls have not been finished and they wish to get a perfect edge.

Kablan – the kablan is looking for grey outside tiles for us to use for the flooring. This may take a while as the natural Israeli grey tiles are of poor quality. Israel mainly does good quality beige colours. He will also be collecting the lights slowly as required from our supplier when he is ready to install them.

Hifi – I made a mistake in last weeks blog. I mentioned some lighting that the electrician had put in the ceiling of the lounge. I was wrong – these are the cables for the speakers. All the cables for the speakers appear to have been installed now.

Basement bathroom – Looks great! This has now been cleaned up and a temporary toilet and hand washing facilities have been installed for the workers (after 3 months!). The doorway has also had a plastic sheet attached to help keep it clean (and I assume for some privacy as well).

Carpentry – The design has now been fully completed and sent off for quotes. We are waiting in dread to hear back as this is likely to be the second most expensive bill (after the Kablan).

I have had a personal request to compare the different roles of UK and Israeli lawyers when purchasing a home. I am not a lawyer, but I have now worked with lawyers in both countries when purchasing a property and have my own opinion on this. This is shown below.

I will start with the similarities – lawyers of both countries are required to protect the interests of their clients when purchasing a property as well as drafting a contract that both purchaser and seller agree to.

The difference between the lawyers in both countries is the practical/legal definition of protecting a client’s interests. In the UK the lawyers frequently spend months obtaining searches to make sure the property has been paid for and is legal for sale, that all changes to the property have the required approvals, obtaining warranties on any extensions and proof that all gas appliances are legally and correctly installed, doing ground searches for placement of utilities, obtaining maps from the land registry confirming the borders of the property and who owns which fences, creating a list of objects within the home that come with the property, working with the land registry to check and then change the property ownership, payments of taxes to the government, managing the finances of the purchase by looking after deposits and managing transfer of all monies from purchaser to seller.

In Israel, the lawyer does check that the person selling the property can legally sell it (although I have heard that not all lawyers are quite as rigorous in this as mine was), works as an intermediary to arrange payments between the two parties (in the uk you pay a deposit and then pay the final amount at purchase – here there are regular payments to the seller throughout the whole time of the contract) – but the lawyer does not handle any of the monies themselves. The money is transferred directly between the purchaser and seller. The lawyer also notifies the seller of the tax that has to be paid on the property within 50 days of signing the contact and where/how to do this. I have been told that the lawyer will also (eventually) register the property with the correct land ownership departments – but I have not got to that stage yet. I am sure that there are other steps – but they were transparent to me, if there are any Israeli lawyers out there then please correct me so that I can update this page correctly.

In the last blog, I said that I would clarify the payments that I have made so far (or am aware of) on the purchase just to help notify you of the costs involved:

1. Lawyer. The cost is arranged between you and the lawyer – I am not aware of the standard fees, but make sure you use a lawyer recommended by family or friends.

2. Estate Agent. The estate agent charges 2% of the purchase price of the property plus vat for his services from both the purchaser and seller. The estate agent may work for one or both of these parties. If you are friendly with your estate agent you will be able to see properties before they are advertised. This is what happened with us on this property.

3.Owner. The owner takes money for the property from the purchaser at signing, during the contract and at the purchase time. From what I have been told, the standard deposit at signing is 20% – 30 %. We actually only paid about 17% now, with about 65% to be paid in mid-March and the last amount on the day of purchase.

4. Tax. The amount of tax can be calculated at this website. It is due within 50 days of signing the contract on the purchase of the property.

5. Interior Designer. This is obviously not a requirement of purchasing a property in Israel but we have a lot of work to do and we will need as much help as possible. From talking to designers, it seems that the average cost appears to be about 250NIS/hour or you can arrange a fixed price. I have arranged with Tamar (our interior designer) an actual fixed price, another designer we spoke to wanted a percentage of how much we spent on the work plus on the materials purchased.

As an aside, whilst writing the previous sentence I was phoned by the Kablan the seller’s lawyer mentioned (see last post) trying to get the renovation work!

That’s all for now folks,

We will add an update next week once things (maybe) are starting to progress.

I wished to technically get a full day’s work in this morning – in my company this means that I need to work at least 6 hours (I will make up the last 3 hours at some other time) – so I started at 5am as I needed to leave at 11am. Joelle went to work as normal and just happened to have one of her busiest mornings in the last 6 months. I guess that most paediatricians hate working just after the weather has changed.

In case you haven’t guessed in the last couple of days we have gone from unseasonably hot weather to just unseasonably warm weather with a hint of rain if you search very hard. Mind you any rain is good.

So, on this clement afternoon we went to our lawyers office for the culmination of 8 months of house hunting. We were planning to sign the contract and pay our initial deposit on our house.

This house is on Rechov Hagitit, for those that know the area, overlooking the wadi between Klei Shir and 07 in Ma’ale Adumim. The property has a built in granny flat for my mum and will give us the space to have guests, a bedroom for each kid (again – I still am not sure how we have survived the boys killing each other on a daily basis at 5 in the morning over the last 4 years), a study, a utility room and possibly a playroom. Please notice the priority! A room for guests. We have missed being able to have a flow of our friends and family spending shabbatot and holidays with us whenever they wished. Please G-d this will change soon. You are cordially invited.

OK. So back to the lawyers. We got there 10 minutes early – and rang the bell for 5 of those until the door was finally opened. We went in and quickly found out that this wasn’t going to be a 2 minute signing and then we could carry on with our afternoon.

We started off with some chit-chat: the seller’s lawyer heard that we were going to be completely renovating the property – so in true Israeli style he gave us the name of his kablan (contractor) who is obviously excellent (and a relative of his!)

The final nuts and bolts of the contract hadn’t been decided! So now, instead of us getting the home on March 1st – nope, sorry, that was changed to April 1st. We are now getting it on April 15th. But, that is erev Pesach. So how about May 1st when the last tenants leave? No they may delay…. The final date is up to the 15th May. With 7 days leeway just in case the tenants need to extend a little! But we may get it earlier…. In other words we still do not know when we will be getting the property. Just when the seller will be breaking the contract!

The next thing to discuss was the payments. We had agreed that we would pay a deposit (no amount had been specified) and then the final amount was to be paid on the day of completion – but as there is now 3 months between signing and completion the seller wanted the majority of the money earlier as he needs it to buy another property. SO the lawyers started quibbling about when to pay the instalments and how much each payment will be. We just sat there through 30 minutes of discussions that was basically irrelevant to us as we have already arranged our finances and they will be available when needed. And now we had to agree to two kitchens being removed and a doorway being opened up in the property to avoid extra taxes. If this wasn’t done both us and the seller would be charged tax on 3 properties. Unsurprisingly we agreed!

Next they asked for Teudat Zehut and I gave over my driving license which is always accepted instead. The driving license is not allowed in this situation. As I didn’t have my Teudat Zehut on me I said I would scan it and email it back when we got home (Our lawyer is a close friend of the family – as is normal in Israel). Then they asked for the bankers cheque for the amount of money that hadn’t been agreed upon before we got to the lawyers! We didn’t have one (or a cheque book) as nobody told us to bring cash with us – we assumed that we could arrange to transfer the money as is the norm in the UK. We agreed that we would leave the lawyers after signing and walk over to our bank just 5 minutes away – Mercantile on Rechov Yaffo – and send the money.

Now we eventually started signing the paperwork. We all had to initial each page of the full contract 5 times. It took at least 15 minutes.

Eventually after 90 minutes we left and ran to the bank, made the transfer and ran back to our car.

We drove to Talpiot and gave Toyota our 4 year old pick up and picked up Joelle’s new car – a yaris hybrid. I said that we had a big afternoon!

We eventually managed to get Joelle back to work – only 20 minutes late, but thankfully the patients were late too! I wonder if they also had as busy an afternoon.

The next step is to pay all extraneous fees and taxes and confirm with the interior designer that we have signed and we are going ahead with the renovations! We then will be adding her to the list of people that will be draining our bank account over the next few exciting (and expensive) months. Stay tuned…